Supporting Ness

April 21, 2014

To the Editor:

Lou Ness has set out on a walk to Washington, D.C., to call attention to poverty in the United States.

For the past four years, she has worked with vulnerable and impoverished people in Rockford at Shelter Care Ministries as its executive director. She knows quite a bit about the issue of poverty and prevailing attitudes concerning it.

She is choosing to tackle each day of this walk, not knowing how it will round out. Many of us, on the other hand, plan and chart each day and then are surprised by how the days shape themselves. In some ways she’s a lot more perceptive.

When interviewed by a Northwest Herald reporter for a March 28 article, questions about her tenure at Turning Point again were asked. And, interestingly, “Turning Point officials declined to comment for the article.”

Turning Point officials might have said, “Without roots, there would be no agency. Lou Ness planted strong roots here, and we have continued to grow because of them.”

The officials might have said, “I’m not surprised that she’s stepping out for the cause of poverty. She sees injustice – whether it’s in the treatment of women or the treatment of the underserved.”

Or they might have even said, “She has courage and always has had it. She may not finish the task, but she’s not afraid to begin. We send her our best wishes.”

But, I guess, those Turning Point officials were just tongue-tied or speechless. That can sometimes happen.